


Casual Observers: the Father

by Browneyesparker



Series: Casual Observers [9]
Category: Girl Meets World
Genre: Casual Observers, F/M, Family, Friendship, Gen, Romance, girl meets world - Freeform, joshaya
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-24
Updated: 2015-09-24
Packaged: 2018-04-23 03:14:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4860926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Browneyesparker/pseuds/Browneyesparker
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He was too old for this. It was like Cory and Topanga all over again and Alan Matthews didn’t know if he could handle it a second time around, he was getting too old for young love.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Casual Observers: the Father

**.**

**Chapter 9**

_The Father_

He was too old for this.

It was like Cory and Topanga all over again and Alan Matthews didn’t know if he could handle it a second time around, he was getting too old for young love.

He was too young to be in love with anybody!

He was too young to even be in _like_ with anybody!

But Alan knew he was in for it when he saw the way his youngest son was looking at his granddaughter’s best friend. He wasn’t even eating his dinner and pizza was his favorite meal of all time. He was just letting his food grow cold while he watched Maya eat and giggle with Riley, while she stole glances in his direction every now and then before looking away and giggling even more.

Good lord, Alan moaned to himself, the feelings were growing! The young pair was in mutual like with _each other_.

Except there was the one time when he walked into the living room and discovered them dancing around the living room to an old song. They weret the best dancers by any means but they put their best efforts in, trying to dance the way they had seen Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers do it in an old movie the night before.

But since they weren’t professionally trained, they were getting all the steps completely wrong and having a lot of fun doing it in the process. Alan smiled as he watched the two of them together and for the first time that summer he didn’t think it would be that bad if Josh and Maya knew at a young age that they were meant for each other.

**.**

“Maya’s the most coolest girl ever,” Josh told his dad as they went fishing a couple of weeks after Cory, Topanga and the girls had gone back to New York. He stopped for a minute and reflected. “And she’s the prettiest too. Well, next to Mom and Topanga, of course.”

“Maya’s pretty special, isn’t she?” Alan asked.

Josh nodded vigorously. “I used to think I’d grow up and marry mom but when I saw Maya, I kind of started to wonder how marrying mom was even possible.”

“Come on son, you’re a little too young to be thinking about marriage,” Alan said.

“I like her,” Josh answered. “I like her a lot.”

“I know you do buddy. There’s nothing wrong with liking her. But how about you finish school and get a job before you think about getting married? You know you’re only 8, there’s plenty of time to grow up and fall in love.”

“I want to be grown up _now_!” Josh said as he reeled his line in and baited the hook again.

“Don’t wish your life away!” Alan chided. “It’ll go by fast enough and then you’ll have a couple of kids and a mortgage and you’ll wish you were a single little boy again.”

“Not if Maya’s in the picture,” Josh replied with so much determination, Alan was reminded of Cory all over again.

“Concentrate on growing up first and letting Maya grow up,” Alan said, knowing there was no way he could argue with love, he had never been able to.

“Then?” Josh asked.

“Then we’ll talk,” Alan said.

**.**

He had been worried for nothing. Because for the most part, Cory and Topanga dealt with Josh and Maya. Especially when Josh grew up and started to rush off to New York every opportunity he got. Yes, he was still involved because the last time he had checked, he was still the father. He hadn’t handed _that_ right over to Cory but at the same time it was nice that he didn’t have to deal with constant chatter about Maya from Josh.

Except there were times Eric would goad Josh about Maya in front of Alan and Amy. But Alan was almost certain it was because Eric really didn’t have any clue about what was going on. It still didn’t stop him from stepping in when the teasing got to be too much and from telling Eric off because even if he didn’t know, it didn’t give him a license to make fun of the young pair.

Besides, the grateful look Josh always gave him was always very satisfying.

**.**

One night he heard whispering in the hallway. Alan opened his eyes and rubbed the sleep out of them, groaning slightly. He was definitely too old to deal with sneaking teenagers, he was just about to wake Amy up and have her go deal with them when he remembered that she, Topanga and Maya’s and Farkle’s mothers had all both escaped to Vermont for a mom’s only weekend because the foliage was at its peak and all sorts of nonsense that he didn’t want to remember.

They had left him and Cory to deal with the kids that weekend.

He threw back the covers, shoved his feet in slippers and padded out to the hallway to put an end to whatever was happening.

Josh and Maya were standing outside the room where she and Riley were sleeping. They were talking in hushed tones and Alan wasn’t sure if they were arguing or if Josh was consoling her.

He hoped to God that they weren’t arguing because there was no way he wanted to deal with _that_ so early in the morning. Except there was something about the way Josh was looking at Maya, both hands on her shoulders as he talked to her that told him they weren’t arguing.

Alan yawned and walked a little closer, the floorboard creaked and caused them both to look in his direction.

“Maybe you should let Maya go to bed,” Alan suggested, trying to look at them sternly but failing miserably.

“Oh, sure!” Josh said, throwing an easy smile in his direction. “I’ll see you in the morning, Maya.”

“It is the morning son,” Alan interjected.

“Right. . . well, I guess I’ll see you at breakfast then,” Josh said, looking at his father before adding, “Everything’s going to be okay.”

Maya managed to smile at him. “I know. Thank you Josh. I’ll see you at breakfast, goodnight Mr. Matthews.”

“Goodnight Maya,” Alan answered not unkindly as he nodded for her to go to bed. He turned to Josh and sighed. “We’ll talk about it later, son.”

Except they didn’t talk about it later because there was no sense on busting them when Alan knew they really weren’t doing anything they weren’t supposed to and he got the feeling that Maya had been dealing with something and Josh had just been trying to help her through it.

He couldn’t chew him out for _that_.

**.**

“How long are you going to let it go on?” Alan asked when they had both gone fishing on their vacation in the Cape Cod.

Josh frowned. “What do you mean?”

“You and Maya,” Alan clarified. “How long are you going to let it go on? I think we both know that she’s old enough for you to make it official now. You can’t spend the rest of your life dancing around each other.”

Josh kind of just laughed. “I don’t know what you mean.”

Alan sighed. “Josh, you know exactly what I mean! You’re not stupid!”

Josh sighed too. “You know we’re just friends, dad.”

Alan rolled his eyes and refrained from asking _why?_ as he dropped his line back into the water.

Afterwards, when they got back to the house from fishing, Josh disappeared with Maya because they had been apart for the whole morning and that was something they _weren’t_ used to. As they ran off to do who knew what, Alan rolled his eyes again.

Maybe he was giving his son too much credit.

Maybe he really _was_ just a little stupid. But there was nothing he could do about _that_.

Cory came out on the porch a little bit later and smiled at him.

“Just give it a little time,” he said. “It’ll happen sooner or later.”

**.**

But it was later rather than sooner.

Another two years went by before anything happened. Maya was almost 19 and Josh was almost 22, it was New Year’s Eve and they kissed at the stroke of midnight. It was a little longer than everybody else’s was, years of pent up emotions came spilling out in one deft stroke.

When they broke apart, they both ran away without looking at each other. Cory got up from the couch and followed Josh. Cory would deal with it, after years of being a teacher, he had gotten good at dealing with things like this.

Alan sat back and waited.

This would be the night everything changed, he was certain of it.

**.**

And it was.

After that night, Josh and Maya’s whole relationship _finally_ changed. They were no longer dancing around each other or sidestepping the issue at hand, they were really together. Alan was just thankful the whole affair was over and done with even though he really hadn’t had much to do with it at all.

Alan could finally breathe easy.

Thankfully, he didn’t have any other kids to worry about falling in love when they were too young to do anything about it.

He didn’t think he could handle it a third time.

**.**

They were getting married. Of course it worked out with a wedding and a happily ever after, they were the Matthews family. Fate always smiled happily on them.

As Alan gave Josh and Maya both kisses for luck and slipped them a little bit of extra money for their honeymoon, he decided he wouldn’t have had it any other way.

 

**_The End_**

**.**

 

**Author's Note:**

> I do not even know what this is! I have been distracted once again and not by Barney and Robin this time. I am trying to get ready for my trip on Friday and that has me all over the place, I apologize for this story. I am hoping some time away will revive my creativity. I feel like everything I’m writing is really bad. That is not me fishing for compliments either. Anyways, I hardly dare ask you to tell me what you thought but I will be wondering.
> 
> Until Next Time!


End file.
